Launch your magazine in India, especially if your sales begin to take a nosedive and you really have no clue what you are doing in your 'home market', where your reputation has been torn to shreds and blogs now occupy the centre-stage in the genre. No we aren't talking about an automotive magazine (or Maxim), rather we're talking about Rolling Stone magazine. An India edition is on the anvil, and should be on stands by either late-2007 or early-2008 to join a growing number of pointless magazines (OK, Prevention, etc., etc.) which are catering for India's newly-literate and hoping that Indian homes put off buying computers or getting broadband connections for a while - talking about broadband - in case you use Airtel broadband, be sure to call them up soon, bumps (not powder ones, but 'speed') are being offered to subscribers - two megs is decent speed as long as they can maintain it. Back to Rolling Stone, the editor has been decided, he was a former colleague at EchTee, and because it has not been 'officially' announced, I won't break the name here just yet.
On another note, and please do not take this as criticism, after being laid low by a viral for the last two-three days I actually managed to watch a lot of TV. And I'll tell you this much, Prabhu Chawla's interview with Rakhi Sawant was the most entertaining thing I have seen on TV (no YouTube link as yet sadly) in a long time. You have to admire that woman's gumption, and she just stole the show from 'Prabhuji', who was taken aback I guess! This was 'must-watch' TV even though it was on a general entertainment channel - Aaj Tak. And I'm still trying to figure out why Star News is obsessed with casting couches? And really, I do like this new Bollywood blog called BombayBitch, must admit it is rather nice and more enjoyable than the PR fluff that Times or the TV channels dish out! Most entertaining indeed!
And someone asked me which N-series phone I would buy? Might as well give a bit of a phone talk then. I love the Nokia N95, even the GPS has yet to be activated thanks to differential duty rates between mobile phones and GPS devices and the Indian military's insane paranoia about GPS devices (and letting go of 2100Mhz spectrum - until they do no 3G!). That said - these are the mobile devices currently on my table - Nokia N93i, Nokia N92, Samsung D900, RIM Blackberry 8300 'Curve' and just got a HTC Touch. The last device I doubt I'll use because I'm not exactly comfortable with Windows Mobile devices, but I want to see how Mobile 6 holds up. I like the Berry, the Samsung discharges before you can finish your first call, watch broadcast TV on the N92 is a great party trick, though it won't really help in getting a date (as long as your choice PRDM's wanking tool - DD News) and the N93i, well, I've loaded it up with a ton of apps and it actually works quite well, though every once in a while it does decide to turn itself off! The N95 is a far more stable platform, and really, if the device had a touch interface it would be on another plane.
But, the N-series range, a money-spinner for Nokia is entering strange territory, the devices now have a price band which stretches from Rs 12,000 to Rs 35,000. I've sen Nokia's segmentation presentation, and with over 80 percent of the Indian GSM market, Nokia's competition in India isn't any other company but Nokia themselves!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
Anyone with a little smarts can steal the show from Prabhuji.
K, I think almost anyone would be able to guess which former EchTee colleague has been hand-picked for the job - this very "independent" critic has his very own "fan" community on Orkut! Check it out.
Oh, and Prabhuji's entire interview had once been posted on Youtube. The poster subsequently just removed it. Great stuff, Rakhi ne Prabhuji ki le li.
Oh, in case you think I'm casting aspertions on his fairness, I'm merely doing a bad pun on his name.
Will Rolling Stone India cover 'HR' - the one and only rockstar of India :)
O... C'mon!
insane paranoia?
with the kind of technology available outside india the army NEEDS it's secure line. they're workin on the project called 'mercury blaze' to ensure high bitrate encryption and consolidate the communication lines.
you think being able to watch tv or locate some fancy ass restaurant on ur phone is more important?
-jk
JK, how come every other country in the world, including notoriously paranoid US of A has no problems with mobile GPS and it's only the Indian Army that's so insecure (well there's North Korea and they don't have GPS).
It's the simplest thing in the world to get providers to blank out sensitive territory like military bases. Or does the Indian Army think of the entire country as one big military base?
I for one think that it's damn right important to locate a fancy ass restaurant on my phone - the Indian Army would just have to be smart enough to work their way around it.
I am a huge Pearl fan, and having explored the Curve lately (for a possible upgradation), I think the Pearl is still better than the Curve ..
Rashmi - Will Rolling Stone India put Himessssss on its first cover in India.. Hmmm.. they should, you know!
:-)
Bona - I don't know but I like the Curve more, waiting for Pearl v2.0 - slimmer, better looks etc...
Thalassa - Agree with you completely!
Hazra for RS?
Therefore, the first RS cover in India will have Keith Richards followed by a LedZep and Floyd retrospective! Hmmm... British music mags are better anyday! Heck, Blender is better!
Our EchTee man is stuck in a 70s time warp now, is he?
The paranoia is consistent with a failed regulation of the Indian telecom companies. Most US telecom companies are home-bred and the govt had already isolated sufficient bandwidth fr military affairs. ALso, the very concept of mobile telephony and enhanced mobile connectivity was initiated by military requirements there.
In India, however, private growth has far exceeded public sector growth. So it's not easy for the army to work it's way around.
My question wasn't just asking if locating a restaurant is important. It was, if having that facility is more important than national security.
Also, thalassa!
We are about 25 times larger than North Korea!
The comparison is senseless when we talk about connectivity.
JK
whats sad is the presence of red herring as rolling stone editor. this guy has been chosen, in people's words and i agree with them, as he is the only one. But... disappointing
Post a Comment